For about 20 hours and counting, Steve Schmidt has been roasting the bejeebus out of Meghan McCain on Twitter in multi-threaded tweets powered by an incandescent fury that makes the sun look like a 5 watt bulb. Why?
From the context, I gather John McCain’s DaughterTM blamed Schmidt for the Palin pick and heaped other abuse on him* in her whiny flop of a book. (I haven’t read her book – no one has! – but we can safely assume it’s whiny.)
Well, Schmidt is not having it anymore. He beholds his field and finds it bereft of fucks.
It doesn’t speak well of my character, but I am so here for this kind of petty shit. In addition to uncut personal rancor so pure that injecting it directly into your veins is dangerous, Schmidt reveals more about the Republican Party-Russia connection, which he says originated with McCain 2008, not Trump 2016.
In a thread that starts here, Schmidt talks about McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, whom Schmidt blames for the Palin fiasco since he says Davis was in charge of vetting her, and Davis’s corrupt ties to Russia. Some excerpts:
@MeghanMcCain this is the story of the man you call Uncle Rick and it explains how we met
Your Father tolerated his campaign chairman being in business and working for Putin through his association with Yanukovych.
Yanukovych, as you probably have no idea, was Putin’s puppet in Ukraine. The story of American corruption in Ukraine starts here. It starts in John McCain’s operation, not Trumps.
Schmidt informs MM that her dad spent his 70th birthday aboard Oleg Deripaska’s yacht and that it was Davis’s grotesque Russia connections that caused McCain’s campaign to implode in the summer of 2008.
Schmidt claims he was brought on as a volunteer to reset the flailing campaign for the nomination, which he did, with no gratitude from Meghan McCain, whom he calls “the singularly most rotten person I have ever met.”
He also calls out The McCain Institute for having “Putin and Yanukovych alumni on the Board,” saying it’s “gross” in “an era that requires the exposure of corruption and hypocrisy not its accommodation.”
Do you have any idea how disappointed the brave people in Ukraine would be learning that one of Victor Yanukovych right hands is on the Board of the McCain Institute. Let’s ask. @visegrad24 @KyivIndependent @olex_scherba
was outrageous then and it is outrageous now. Here is the serious part. The person I’m talking about, is the one who was in charge of VETTING the VP candidate. True. Putin’s guy, the one who was Victor Yanukovich’s henchman was in charge of ALL of the DUE DILIGENCE around Palin. I wasn’t.
This was reported at the time and is detailed in Game Change. I was focused on dealing with a different catastrophe. Get back to me @MeghanMcCain if you want to hear more.
In another thread, Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop:
I was the first adult that @MeghanMcCain ever encountered that she heard the word NO from. I told her she was unimportant and that the Presidential election wasn’t about her. I left her on the tarmac when she didn’t make the plane because as I explained to her, the 5000 people
who were waiting to see her father speak and took the time to do it deserved to have him show up on time. That was the way John McCain saw it. He was appalled by @MeghanMcCain conduct on the campaign. Appalled and embarrassed. The tantrums were beyond anything I have
ever witnessed from any other human being. They were epic meltdowns that would test the range of Meryl Streep, Kate Winslett, Jodi Foster and Anne Hathaway on their best days. Raging, screaming, crying, at the staff, at the makeup people at Secret Service. Without any doubt
it was the most rotten, entitled, spoiled, cruel, mean and bullying behavior I have ever witnessed. It was my job to confront it and I did. I talked to 24 year old @MeghanMcCain the way an adult should have talked to the Trump kids. I talked to her the way a retired USMC
Star General failed to do in the WH with Ivanka, Jared and Jr. They are all the same people. I told her that she was unimportant and that everything around her had nothing to do with her. I told her she was privileged and lucky and should be grateful. She told me and
anyone else who would listen in response, “Do you know who the Fuck my Dad is” It was the miserable anthem of the total chaos that was the McCain Campaign. It never stopped until one day when I said ENOUGH!
@MeghanMcCain is a bully, entitled, unaccomplished, spoiled and mean. She has rejected her Family’s history of service for a shallow and purposeless celebrity where she trades on a famous name like a fourth generation wannabe clipping coupons while pretending to be an heir
I was a volunteer for John McCain. He called me when that campaign went belly up. Everyone quit and he called and asked for my help and I never asked him for a dime. I never took a dime. I left my three year old for a year and did everything I could for John McCain.
He was the only person I ever worked for who put in a position where I became involved in a public lie. When that campaign ended, I made a vow that that would never happen again and it hasn’t.
Excerpts don’t do justice to the supernova of rage that is Schmidt’s Twitter feed right now. Read it for much, much, much more.
Open thread!
PS: Schmidt’s rants attracted outraged howls from a certain resident of Brazil, so Schmidt’s accusations about the GOP-Russia connection have been confirmed.
*Schmidt says Meghan McCain called him a pedophile, which is Republican for “I disagree with you.” We live in the dumbest fucking timeline ever.
Jerzy Russian
Here is my heartfelt request to Steven Schmidt: If I ever piss you off, please give me a chance to apologize!
Also too: Everything about that sentence is awesome.
trnc
More, please!
MagdaInBlack
Oh my! I stumbled across this delicious treat last night. I’m glad you shared it, Betty, thank you ?
P.S. I think he was set off when she implied or outright called him a pedophile, the current go-to insult from the right.
JPL
Sometimes a twitter rant is what we need. The only thing that I objected to was Steve’s mention of Cindy McCain.
He was blogging all night and since I woke at three, it kept me entertained.
Keith P.
I’m pretty sure that every review on Amazon uses the word “whiny”. Seriously.
zhena gogolia
Wow. I do have work to do, you know!
germy
germy
this photo:
zhena gogolia
I had a tiny bit of respect for her when she threw shade at TFG at McCain’s funeral. No more.
eversor
Ouch!
In other news people are starting to get where to focus the protests about abortion and who needs to be shamed and deeply afraid of the back lash.
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/08/will-pro-choice-catholic-churches-the-right-seems-to-think-so/
The vehicle for this shift came with the news that a relatively unknown pro-choice group, Ruth Sent Us, was not merely planning “walk-by” protests at the homes of six conservative Supreme Court justices, but also confrontational protests at Roman Catholic and other churches around the country on Sunday. The morning after the leaked opinion was published, the group tweeted, “Whether you’re a ‘Catholic for Choice,’ ex-Catholic, of other or no faith, recognize that six extremist Catholics set out to overturn Roe. Stand at or in a local Catholic Church Sun May 8.” Accompanying the post was a video of several women in “Handmaid’s Tale”-style red cloaks and white bonnets, chanting pro-choice slogans in the aisle of a San Francisco church this February.
This is a start but not nearly enough. Go after the churches, this is the only way.
Kay
@germy:
That is wild. Jesus.
Was there ever any indication that even Right wing women liked her or were interested in what she had to say? She was just foisted on us as a “celebrity”, for no apparent reason.
germy
Schmidt mentions this Nation article in one of his threads
MattF
Saw that rant this morning. Explains, among other things, how John McCain knew Rand Paul was (and presumably still is) on Putin’s payroll.
debbie
When he finished with MM, he moved on to Sarah Palin. Same level of fury.
Dangerman
Someone in the McCain campaign vetted Sarah Palin?
Eunicecycle
Oh man, I was following Steve’s rant until about midnight when it seemed like he was quitting. I’ll have to go see what happened after that! I hope he doesn’t have a stroke.
debbie
@Dangerman:
Heh, the couple of tweets I read were about her misperception of being able to commandeer the campaign airplane whenever she wanted to.
germy
@Kay:
So many of them are foisted on us. Every year or so I see some new man or woman suddenly everywhere. Sometimes it’s an entertainer but it’s usually some writer or influencer. And it becomes obvious that someone with a lot of power and friends in the media wants me to like and respect this new person. And it’s no coincidence that the new person is saying all the things his/her backers want me to believe.
JPL
@debbie: Why would a person be nasty to the agents who are there to protect you? I imagine there are some ladies from the view who enjoyed Steve’s rant.
debbie
When does Zelenskyy get a chance to sleep? I just watched this 15-minute video for Ukraine’s Day of Rememberence. It’s really very powerful. Rand and his ilk should be made to watch it Clockwork Orange-style.
The video’s split into two section for some reason. Here’s the second part:
Eunicecycle
@JPL: yeah that wasn’t very kind, pulling Cindy in against her daughter. But Steve was way beyond being graceful at that point.
debbie
@JPL:
Something more must be going on than her calling him a pedophile.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Damn,
and clearly
“Did you know Meghan McCain is the daughter of John McCain?”
should be a rotating tag.
germy
One of the million reasons I was so glad Obama won was because I didn’t trust John McCain’s ability to make good choices. He was a gambler and seemed incapable of study and reflection. Instead he was all kneejerk reactions and snap decisions. Palin was the most extreme example. He makes a “roll the dice” gesture and says “let’s go!” rather than paying attention to details and questioning her. His famous daughter seems to have inherited that trait
debbie
@JPL:
Not sure I agree. It shows Meghan’s dilettante-ishness.
germy
@debbie:
She’s trying to boost the sales of her book. Controversy is supposed to help. I think she miscalculated
Sebastian
Betty, if you weren’t married already, I would propose you.
Never ever has anyone given me a bigger present on a Sunday morning than you have! I can’t even begin.
Thank you!
Alison Rose ???
@Dangerman: “Is she a human?”
“Yes, mostly.”
“Is she a US citizen?”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“HUZZAH, VETTING DONE, WE GOT OUR VEEP, BOYS!”
WaterGirl
@Jerzy Russian: I will see that most excellent sentence and raise you this one:
Which is now a rotating tag.
Damien
@germy: The difference between a “roll the dice” motion and the international sign for “jerk off” are slim for a reason
Wanderer
“He beholds his field and finds it is bereft of fucks” Chef’s kiss perfection. You are a treasure @Betty Cracker.
hueyplong
Hard to imagine something more conclusively deciding the issue than to say that Megan McCain’s sole support (and, per sales figures, readership) comes from G Greenwood.
eclare
Now if Schmidt wrote a tell-all book, I might buy that one.
WaterGirl
@germy: Wow, that’s not trashy at all. //
The kid and her father’s grave. She has outdone herself. I think you have to work pretty hard to get to that level of trash.
JPL
@WaterGirl: ???
debbie
Schmitt’s back at it this morning!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
me too, especially when he’s boring into the head of a middle-aged spoiled brat, a trust-fund-baby-bully whose entitlement eclipses the born-on-third-base-think-they-hit-a-triple attitude of the Bushes and Romneys. My favorite bit seems like almost a throw-away
germy
@WaterGirl:
She props her book against his headstone.
Product placement!
karen marie
@JPL: I missed that at part. Why object to her inclusion? She’s as guilty of egregiously bad behavior as her husband and daughter.
WaterGirl
@germy: Wow, I missed that the first time around. That’s even better.
And by better, I mean oh so much worse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I’ve seen it said that people liked her on The View, even if they didn’t agree with her politics, because she “fought back”, which is something you always heard about trump, and I heard a FL reporter say is what people like about De Santis.
I don’t get it
Kay
The problem for me with the Never Trumpers revelations is they directly contradict the whole basis of Never Trumpism, which is that all of them believed they were engaged in some noble conservative enterprise prior to Trump.
They really need to give us a rough date for when this started, and it can’t be “immediately after I left”.
Renie
I was up early around 4am cuz I had problem sleeping and ran across his tweets. Just loved someone giving her the comeuppance she needs. I also had no idea about the Russian connections to McCain’s campaign. It was all so fascinating to read and hope it gets some media attention.
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve always run hot and cold with Steve Schmidt, but after reading this, I think I’m in love.
JPL
@karen marie: Steve complained to Cindy about Meghan’s behavior and supposedly Cindy said “well I raised two nice sons”.
karen marie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t understand what the connection is between the Montenegro referendum and McCain’s campaign “going BOOM.” Anyone?
OzarkHillbilly
Ah yes, the immortal words of tough guys everywhere: “My lawyers can beat up your lawyer.”
karen marie
@JPL: What’s objectionable about reporting that interaction?
It seems in character for the Cindy McCain.
Also, aren’t McCain’s sons from his first marriage while she personally birthed her trailer trash daughter?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hoo boy, he goes right after the old man in a later thread
SiubhanDuinne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
sounds like bad news for John McCain.
Anyway
Reason # 5467 to have no respect for MM – this no-talent dilettante coasting on her father’s name is married to a Tier 3 RW grifter. The whole family lives off the RW noise machine ginning up grievances.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I would normally relegate “bad news for John McCain” references to the dustbin of history, but in this context it was laugh-out-loud funny.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
JPL
@karen marie: I thought it reeked of your mom loved your brothers more. It seemed childish to me. I’m not saying it was wrong, but I was more interested in the Putin connections.
germy
@karen marie:
The Manafort faction of the campaign bankrupted the campaign.
MisterDancer
Well, between this and the announcement of the new actor for Doctor Who, this has been a refreshing morning.
That pedo shit, though — yeah, that would be enough to set me the hell off, all by itself. No other explanation needed in my head, esp. as Schmidt’s spoken up before on much of this.
Gin & Tonic
@karen marie: From his thread:
germy
I suspect Meghan is having a bad today.
I feel sorry for any member of her household staff. Nanny, chef, maid… they’re probably walking on eggshells today to avoid her misdirected wrath
JAFD
@eversor:Sidelight thereto; may be of interest:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/saints-once-did-abortions-it-was-a-lesser-sin-than-oral-sex-1.3466881
Dorothy A. Winsor
In addition to being horrible on the campaign, MM just accused Schmidt of running a “pedo ring” during the campaign. It’s the lie of the day.
eclare
I am on my phone so no link, Dr. Jill made a trip to Ukraine to meet with Zelenskyy’s wife.
germy
This thread features some bizarre excerpts from Meghan’s other book:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eclare:
Faithful Lurker
Is there a unthreaded version of Schmidt’s rant? Twitter doesn’t work for me and I’d love to read the whole thing. I loathed Sarah Palin. I have to go make birthday cake for my husband but I’ll check back later.
Thanks.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Alison Rose ???: I thought Palin’s vetting was literary, “she gives guys a boner” and it was clear they were ignoring what was coming out of her fool’s mouth.
eclare
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thank you!
germy
By the way, fuck Schmidt.
Schmidt joined the Bush administration as a deputy assistant to the president and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2004, he was a member of the senior strategic planning group, led by White House adviser Karl Rove, that ran President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign; Schmidt oversaw the reelection “war room”. In 2005 and 2006, he was the White House strategist responsible for the U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.
zhena gogolia
@MisterDancer: Ooh, he’s cute! I never watch Doctor Who but I do enjoy the casting announcements.
Spanky
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I sure hope you meant “literally”!
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dusty in here.
Gravenstone
@MisterDancer: They do seem to love their Scots.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Gosh, I even feel kind of sorry for Ben Domenech today.
Oh wait, no I don’t. That was gas.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Do dear, that Doctor fails the brown paper bag test. The angst of the Culture Warrior is just starting. Poor dears.
Benw
@Kay: so Steve admits that he was fully aware of Russian corruption in the Republicans and still worked his ass off for them. And was fine with a Republican president with serious ties to Russia. That’s the first question I’d ask him
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Love the yellow shoe and blue show she wore.
Kay
If anyone’s interested in reading really excellent work covering the real world effects of the Texas abortion ban, read Molly Hennessy-Fiske. She works for the LA Times.
I think we have to support the (few) journalists who are covering the substantive issue on the ground because the women involved have disappeared and as the bans spread nationwide women simply won’t be heard from.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay:
For further elucidation on this almost to a point of obsession, please see Driftglass’ blog or listen to the Professional Left podcast.
Schmidt, the LP and Bulwark guys all act like perfectly innocent parties in the devolution of their party that led directly and inexorably to Trump. If given a choice to vote for a fascist or Democratic candidate, the best any of them would do is not vote and I certainly have no confidence that none of them would vote for the fascist.
Yes, this juicy ranting is entertaining but I’m still wanting a shower because all of them stink.
Geo Wilcox
@germy: Where did the money end up, some Russian oligarchs bank account in the isle of Jersey?
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: And Justin Trudeau is in Kyiv, re-opening the Canadian Embassy.
VOR
Palin was a sign of McCain’s lack of judgement. She was so obviously incompetent and knew nothing. The idea of her as second in line for the nuclear codes to a 72-year old cancer survivor in the most stressful job on the planet was troublesome. Even my hardcore Republican family had second thoughts about McCain when I asked them about Palin.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Yeah, that’s always the elephant in the room for me too with NeverTrumpers. Same with people like Esper who thought they were “holding the line” by staying on to protect the US and the world from Trump; the fact remains they still participated in the build up to this point
oatler
I used to watch The View occasionally hoping that butterball would get agitated and start gabbling angrily, setting the whole hen house afire. There’s a Youtube that compiles all the moments she referenced her father.
Kay
@Benw:
I don’t trust the Lincoln Project. I don’t think they have shown themselves to be trustworthy people because they never examined the core issue, which seems to me to be that they show very poor judgment.
I think big errors matter more than small errors and they have made some very big errors. There’s a price for that. We’re paying it.
They announced they were backing Tim Ryan and one of Ryan’s campaign people tweeted “plz no” which made me laugh out loud :)
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It’s ego. It’s all James Comeyism. “I alone am the decider”. They’re insufferable.
MisterForkbeard
@Dorothy A. Winsor: So…. Meghan thought he was running a pedo ring and literally never told anyone? Wow.
Its the thing conservatives just accuse others of for no reason. Even in this case, if it were true it just makes her a moral monstrosity. But she doesn’t understand that either.
grumbles
Wow, this is first-rate politicrack, what a lovely Sunday morning gift.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I haven’t seen the movie The Northman yet, because theaters, meh. But I do know the Icelandic story the movie is based on it’s hilarious reading people trying to squeeze an early Medieval Norse story into the Culture War and failing, and being baffled by the ending when it’s revealed who was really taking revenge.
Lapassionara
I am so here for it too. And that he called her “Veruca Salt.” I wonder if MM even got that reference.
Thanks, Betty
Kay
It is fun to read that she’s horribly spoiled and entitiled, which obviously we knew from her completely insane and shameless reliance on her father for her entire livelyhood, but verification is fun.
The photo of her shitty book propped up against his headstone tells you all you need to know. Extra points for dragging her own kid into it, who isn’t old enough to object.
MisterDancer
@Sure Lurkalot: Schmidt deserves the beat-down from history. He enabled a lot of what we now are fighting, in very direct terms.
That said, upon reading? He’s not letting himself off the hook in full. The Palin thread starts with that being the “worst decision I ever made” or something of the like, and most of what we know indicates he wasn’t the person who made that final call. Yet he was the person who said “why not Palin, what have we to lose?” which was bad enough. And he admits it (and has, before).
I have no love for this wanker. I just want him (and anyone else) to speak up, to lay all this shit out, so we can get this out and in the open.
MisterDancer
Not really? He was posting in bursts, in multiple threads overnight, so the usual tools aren’t 100% helpful if you want the full layout of what he wrote.
Kay
@MisterDancer:
I agree. Truth telling is good. Maybe for him too, although I am honestly a little alarmed at the firehose nature of it and I hope he has real friends or family members checking in. He’s a little manic.
Spanky
@Kay:
Scotch with a bile chaser is a hell of a drug.
Don’t ask me how I know.
hueyplong
@MisterDancer: Everyone with first hand knowledge to tell us is going to be a wanker. That’s why they were in a position to have first hand knowledge. We shouldn’t let “remember he’s a shit” be a reason to inadvertently support the GOP’s omerta policy by discounting credible testimony that helps us.
germy
Excellent point. They were inside that No Decent People Allowed tent but I welcome their stories. And I love when they turn their fire hoses on each other.
Sure Lurkalot
@MisterDancer: I can appreciate the sunlight and the small amount of contrition, but I’m not sure that most of what’s being revealed is not already known…that MM is a petty, immature no nothing and Schmidt regrets Palin. The McCain-Russia connection is something I’m not sure I knew about but that Nation article seems to indicate that it’s old, if not widely read news.
Kay
@Spanky:
It’s just delightful that “you’re a pedophile!” has become the go-to, all purpose smear on the Right.
The Party of Christopher Rufo.
mrmoshpotato
And to think a duel with sub-machine guns was possible…
Sure Lurkalot
@hueyplong:
SS is not a disinterested 3rd party here and the rant borders on protesting too much, even if it’s righteous. I like a peep into the tent as much as anyone, but people’s accounts, especially of 14 year old events are colored by all manner of things. So, I’m going to have to take “credible testimony” with a grain of salt. While still enjoying the feud and credible/incredible revelations.
Villago Delenda Est
This is the sort of quality snark that you can only find at Balloon Juice or Wonkette.
Spanky
@Sure Lurkalot: Credibility shouldn’t even enter into the equation, given the combatants. In fact, the more egregious the lie the more mouth frothing we see. Fine enough when we’re rooting for injuries.
Kay
Cool little story about how far Right people took over a small town’s school and tried to abolish the public one and contract it out for “online learning”.
They got crushed. 377 to 2.
We can beat Christopher Rufo. Abolishing public schools is unpopular.
MagdaInBlack
I imagine Meghan is on the phone now with her attorney working up the “slander, libel, he was mean to me, I’m John McCains daughter” lawsuit.
Eta: all while in epic meltdown mode. I wonder if there’s any un-broken crockery left in the house.
Matt
Nice way to round out the bit: by reminding us that Steve’s also a piece of fashy garbage, he’s just annoyed by some of his fellow-travelers.
Villago Delenda Est
TFG makes it look very, very easy.
StringOnAStick
I had no idea there was a Russian connection to the McCain campaign, so I hope this story gets legs. The R party has been compromised for a long, long time, all because of the money available to the willing. My dad’s smug insistence that his party is completely moral and upstanding has always been bs, and the Russian connection would completely shake him if he ever heard it, but FOX and his closed loop means he never will and wouldn’t believe it if he did.
Captain C
@germy: Those ostrich coats aren’t going to pay for themselves.
Cameron
@Kay: “I’m a little pedophile/short and stout/here is my handle/there is my spout”……on further examination, maybe I shouldn’t go there…..
L85NJGT
@Sure Lurkalot:
Current events change the value of illuminating that Ukrainian mess.
The why is easy, money.
The who and when of the GOP deciding to trick for a Russian pimp, maybe that’s all on John McCain, maybe not.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“twitter wig snatch” made me laugh out loud, then made me laugh again when Germy’s link led me to the retrospective on How Much The Hair and Make-up People At The View Hated Meghan McCain…
I’m not a nice person, and even I thought the double-bun look was just mean
Bex
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Well, as Pete B. says, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a culture war.
Tenar Arha
I suppose I’m in the “let them fight” & “rooting for injuries” camps. I’m definitely enjoying their “fight” vicariously. It also makes me think.
I really despise both of these monstrous people, but I find myself having to constantly remind myself that Steve Schmidt is the one that’s been making a living for decades enabling the worst in the GOP. He’s the one that really needs to make amends, & I certainly don’t forget how he had Howard Schultz almost running as a 3rd party spoiler. MM is just the badly raised & unloved trust fund daughter using her famous father for leverage & celebrity.
Thinking serious thoughts in writing: Probably has something to do with our culture’s inherent misogyny that I find her being such an utterly annoying whining attention seeker somehow more grating than a guy who is one of the many people who helped make his career devouring our democracy from within.
Captain C
I think the pedophile accusations by conservatives may be projection on their part, as they seem to be infested with such.
PJ
@Sure Lurkalot: I did not know that Russian influence on the GOP went at least as far back as Dole in ’96, but, as you note, that information may have been out there, just not widely publicized.
Captain C
@Tenar Arha:
Quite possibly, but with the exacerbating factor that pretty much anyone who’s not a whiny trust fund baby trying to cash in on a parent’s fame and status finds such people to be extremely annoying.
trollhattan
I think it’s Fake Meghan McCain. Nowhere does she write, “my father, John McCain–did you know he was a POW?”
Nevertheless, epic beatdown is epic. Can’t wait for Chapter 2.
Now, about the “book.” She’s clearly pissed off the Republican establishment because there have been no massive ghost buys to propel it onto the NYT list, later to be handed out as party favors at AEI conferences.
Captain C
@PJ: In the time of Dole, it may not have seemed that important as Russia was seen as chaotic and impotent at that point.
trollhattan
Speaking of fake, please, please convince me somebody’s “‘avin’ a laff” at the tail end of comments to Adam’s Ukraine update last night. Pretty please?
Chief Oshkosh
@Benw: Agreed. Schmidt seems to be finally spilling all of the dirt simply to be nasty back to MM. And richly deserved though that might be, it is very telling that he continued to work for the Republicans for YEARS and YEARS knowing that they were completely infiltrated by Putin’s minions.
YEARS and YEARS.
zhena gogolia
@Captain C: And also trying to become a normal country.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: in those excerpts from her first book-like-product, she repeatedly complains about how she was never showed the proper respect as John McCain’s Daughter! She clearly thought she was a major power-broker. I remember in 2012 she tweeted out something like “I’m ready to work with whichever campaign really wants to kick Obama’s ass!”, and the response was crickets.
Also, she called that first “book” Dirty Sexy Politics. Such a lame and pathetic attempt to make herself sound edgy and hip!
Steeplejack
@germy:
Steve Schmidt has something of an apologia in this thread. (Thread Reader version here.)
West of the Rockies
@MisterDancer:
I sense a disturbance in the sci fi universe, as if a thousand sad puppies howled out in rage…
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Haha, HE’S BAAAAACK
PJ
@Tenar Arha: I don’t think it’s down to misogyny – I think it’s just that people who are publicly in your face with their terribleness are more irritating than people who commit their terrible deeds in private. The bad acts committed outside of the public eye might be much worse, in terms of the long-term damage, but the public stuff is what gets you enraged every day, because it’s more difficult to avoid it.
In the scheme of things, Steve Schmidt’s work for advancing the GOP agenda – which has directly contributed to where we are today, with Trump, Jan. 6, and the Supreme Court – is far more destructive than whatever Meghan McCain has done (which seems to be mostly in the realm of self-promotion), but Steve Schmidt isn’t on the TV every day. Maybe a better comparison would be with someone like Trump, who, in my opinion, has been far more destructive than Schmidt, but my extreme dislike of Trump was amplified because he forced me to think about his atrocious self every day for more than four years (and even now!) If Trump had been more like Calvin Coolidge publicly, but kept the same terrible policies, my irritation would be proportionately less.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Thanks for the link—bookmarked.
Brit in Chicago
@germy: Yes!
(But the daughter sounds waaay much worserer.)
Steeplejack
@Geo Wilcox:
I think Manafort et al. were skimming a lot.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia: I want to think it’s a jackal who hit the cooking sherry extra hard on a Saturday night, because I really, really have no time or tolerance for a Russian troll residing here.
Captain C
@Steeplejack: To be fair, if we had Manafort’s personal burn rate (given his obvious addiction to luxury), we’d probably be skimming the McCain campaign for all it was worth.
frosty
@WaterGirl: Excellent! Great rotating tag and nice that John’s given you the keys to do that.
germy
@Steeplejack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLfAf8oHrMo
L85NJGT
@zhena gogolia:
This is why Putin will be a historical footnote. A real boss would take all those troll farm morons, hand them Mosins, and put them on the next choppers for Snake Island.
Sister Golden Bear
@Captain C: My response to the pedo accusations: “Is that your mating call?”
MazeDancer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Started reading Steve’s threads of fire last night, simply wide-eyed at the fury.
I have always had a crush on him, because of his command of language, despite his many flaws. And it pained me to write him off during the Howard Schultz fiasco.
This morning, with him still at it with the blowtorch, thought about what would it be like to have someone with such passion and verbal skills pen you a love letter.
Well, fun while it lasted. But you wouldn’t want to get him angry. As he tweeted:
Steeplejack
I was up in the wee hours last night and found myself voraciously reading Steve Schmidt’s whole timeline. Selected threads:
Times “access journalism” and J.D. Vance.
More on access journalism and “tollbooth firms.”
Legitimacy crisis of our institutions.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
This is why I have a bit more respect for Max Boot. He’s one of the few willing to admit he wasn’t 100% happy with the Republicans before Trump and explain why he went along anyway. I don’t respect his decision, but it’s very useful to hear and understand why he made it. It also gives me a bit more confidence he isn’t going to go back right away if the Trumpists are purged from the party; he recognizes the parts of the party he liked were window dressing for the real project.
Kay
Conservative lawyers are leaking to the Washington Post to say that the 5 member ultra far Right majority still holds on Roe. Anyone who took any of these people seriously on the outrage of the leaked opinion should be embarrased.
How many people are privy to these deliberations? Ginni Thomas’ entire email list? The whole Federalist Society knows before Americans find out.
Kay
But remember! This too might just be far Right lawyers lobbying the Supreme Court to overturn the fundamental right to bodily autonomy for women!
Just a big game to them. They’re all in there wheeling and dealing, pushing this one and that further Right.
The right itself? Women? No one gives a shit. So much for the “sanctity of deliberations”. They may as well live Tweet from inside the room.
When they catch the leaker he/she should defend by asking why this leak is being treated differently from all the others. It’s a good question.
debbie
@Kay:
Kay, do you think charges of perjury can be pursued on the nominees who lied under oath about preserving precedent? If not, can there be some sort of legislation to ensure consequences for any instances of perjury in the future?
zhena gogolia
Wow, good thing I’m not attending church. My husband listened to the recording of last week, and he said our resident lefty announced a vigil to call for ending the war in Ukraine. So good I wasn’t there. There would be blood on the altar for sure.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Thank you for curating that.
I hope Schmidt never pulls down any of the threads.
piratedan
@MisterDancer: wow! quite the next step from Sex Education but he’s been awesome in that, wide range of tremendous performance from that character alone, so if the writing holds, he should be great.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Adam banned him.
germy
Ruckus ??
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A lot of people feel helpless in the bigger world. In many cases they don’t understand that most everyone is rather helpless in the big world unless they join in a positive group.
Try thinking about conservative/liberal from that point.
Conservatives want to return/hide in a series of laws and restrictions that control a lot of what they think is making the world even less controlled/controlling. They want control because they think it makes the world a less confusing, less wild place to live, while it does exactly the opposite. Yes we need to have a modicum of control because some people have zero. We call those controls laws – I call them laws against harm. Laws against murder for example. Conservatives want far more control laws because it simplifies their lives/decisions, while it makes life worse for far more people. Some can also make a tidy profit off of those restrictive laws. Look at the world of vova. The world’s richest man, or at least thereabouts, runs a country that has an average yearly salary of $20K while all his surrounding oligarchs are multi billionaires. Look at all the wealth of our conservative party’s true leaders and let me know if you see a connection in kind with them and the Russian economy.
There are a number of issues I have with the conservative party in the US but one is how structured it is around keeping some rather to very wealthy and most others rather poor.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia: Excellent. My blood pressure will return to the standard in-flight setting.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
I checked his timeline when I eventually got up this morning, and it’s interesting that the only pushback he’s getting—almost none of it factual—is from right-wingers with Breitbart, Commentary, etc., in their profiles.
Ksmiami
@Captain C: every accusation with the GOP is a confession… every single one…
Captain C
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m going to use that.
Brachiator
And that’s just it. She is unimportant. I guess the guy’s Twitter rant is a good corrective for the sake of those deluded souls who paid her any kind of attention. And maybe any GOP public relations hacks will think twice before using her to help push their crap (they probably won’t).
But otherwise it’s much ado about a nobody.
ETA. Weird. Got an internal server error message.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Gotta protect the grift.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator:
Excuse me. Did you miss that he’s pretty much taking the whole GOP ecosystem to task?
NotoriousJRT
@MisterDancer: this pretty much is my take. I listen to Schmidt and his ilk (Nicole Wallace, Tim Miller, Charlie Sykes, Michael Steele, et al) to see if they can give me insights to reach my right-wing family members. But, I always find myself thinking, “if you hold these beliefs, where were you on so many issues since at least Bush v Gore?” Of course, I always conclude it was all the sweet cash and power and cool kids connections.. That they hopped off the tiger at its MAGA turn does not fully cut it for me. But, if they help fight authoritarianism, I welcome the help.
Gvg
The attack that McCain had Russian connections, puzzles me. I recall Bush saying he had looked into Putin’s soul and saw a good man, followed by McCain’s quip that he saw KGB.
I also remember McCain’s campaign imploding when the economy imploded and it was clear McCain didn’t know squat about economics and didn’t know what to do or who to ask, whereas Obama as usual seemed quietly competent.
Never liked MM and didn’t need to hear all these details, but she and others better watch it with the pedophile accusations. They are going to get sued sooner or later.
Betsy
Same. So same.
I was *such* a good person before 4 years of TFG (and 2 years of global plague worsened by the global plague that is right wing nationalism)
JaySinWa
@Kay: In part of the rant he talks about having been in therapy, so maybe he can go back to that.
There’s a weird bit of self aggrandizing there where he says he told the therapist they will think they should be paying him, and in the end the therapist says the people who say that are signalling they are narcissists but in his case the story would be worth paying for.
Steeplejack
JaySinWa
@Elizabelle: Yes she’s a nobody that triggered a response that has collateral damage of greater import than the original target. To some extent it is just a rehash of stuff that was inadequately covered and forgotten, but bringing it back may help us remember.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack: Anti-abortion protesters do this exact thing in front of clinic employee and doctor homes. Somebody tell me which crowd presents more danger.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
That has been noted on Twitter!
Betsy
@Dangerman: Yeah, the little guys between the big guys’ legs
Steeplejack
Oof, check out Mrs. Kavanaugh’s body language in this clip.
James E Powell
@NotoriousJRT:
I with you & others who look sideways at Schmidt and the rest of the Suddenly Pro-Democracy crowd. But I make the analogy with prosecutions of organized crime. The only witnesses with knowledge are also criminals.
Ruckus ??
@SiubhanDuinne:
LOL!
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
Her deer-in-the-headlights performance while Dr. Ford was testifying was quite the thing to behold.
But he got His Precious anyway–bet that made him a LOT easier to live with.
trollhattan
@VOR: Yeah, Palin was a Thomas Eagleton-level own goal and they could have corrected that, but chose not to. Not even after the Palin clan’s shopalooza.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Is it wrong of me to wish the FBI would (pretend to) take some of these accusations seriously, and drag in the accusers to find out what they know about the felony abuse, how long they’ve know about it, and why they didn’t report it sooner?
Ruckus ??
@Kay:
He’s a little manic.
Does that mean he’s aware about all the crap he is responsible for and is willing to admit it? Because he’d be one of the very, very few that actually figured out that his beliefs are selfish, shit and did oh I mention selfish? Right wing crap does not make a better world in any way, what it does is make money for people that otherwise couldn’t earn a damn dime.
Ruckus ??
@germy:
And I love when they turn their fire hoses on each other.
Wouldn’t it be better if they turned fire on each other?
Kropacetic
Ever since TFG’s Russian connections were revealed; whenever I would think of Romney’s statement in the 2012 debates that Russia is our most significant foreign adversary, I’d speculate he must also know how deep Russian influence in his party runs. This more or less confirms that for me.
Ogliberal
Jamie Kirchick and Eli Lake are out there with Glenn going to bat for poor Meghan.
Speaking of Greenwald, wtf is this even?
“And unlike all the neocons and Lincoln Project goons for whom liberals swoon, Tucker has repeatedly and explicitly accounted for his past, saying how much shame he feels for the heinous ideology he supported and how that regret shapes his determination never to support it again.”
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1523300148792627201?t=BXJM7elxmyr8bQMCa-ct-A&s=09
Of course, wingnuts think Glenn is hard left. Really, he’s just a dick.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Do not compare Palin to Thomas Eagleton, please. He would have been an excellent VP.
Ruckus ??
@Villago Delenda Est:
TFG makes it look very, very easy.
It’s the only thing he actually knows how to do, to scrape the bottom of the garbage can for leftovers and lie about where he got lunch. He learned this well from his racist, landlord father.
Roger Moore
@Gvg:
To be precise, the attack isn’t that McCain had Russian connections, it’s that the McCain campaign had Russian connections. This seems plausible to me. The problem is there are a lot of people with Russian ties in the party and in party-adjacent groups like the NRA. There’s a good chance that someone whose campaign was floundering and looked to find someone new to come in and take over would find someone with Russian ties, even if they didn’t like or trust Russia. That’s both because there are so many of them and because the Russians would see it as a chance to get their claws into one more person.
Elizabelle
@Kropacetic: Interesting point. I hope the FBI does open an investigation. Even though most of their agents might be on Team Republican.
Rot and corruption is rot and corruption. There will be records, and a trail to follow.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
He practically pushes her aside to get at his kid!
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
Yes, the impression I get is that McCain was unwitting or perhaps (selectively) incurious. “Don’t turn on the lights, I don’t want to see!”
Kropacetic
@Elizabelle: I hope so too and I hope any investigation bears fruit. I worry, though. In a basically two-party system where one of the major parties is just hopelessly corrupt, top to bottom, how does that party ever get held accountable without raising the issue of politicizing justice?
Kropacetic
People like to see people fight, even if it’s not for a good cause. See 90 percent of reality TV.
Kropacetic
Fixed that for Schmidt.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
I think this has been common to the whole party. Even the ones who haven’t sold their souls to Russia know how deep the party, but they pretend they can stay clean by looking the other way. See, they never took money from Russia!
Hoosierspud
@germy: I agree with you about McCain being a gambler. I think he destroyed 3 planes he piloted before he was shot down in Vietnam. He never faced any consequences since Daddy and Grandpa were admirals.
rikyrah
The ethering was absolutely fabulous.
Lyrebird
@Wanderer: Agreed.
This bit is what gets my chef’s kiss :
Few can wield a keyboard like Mrs. C can…
rikyrah
Think on that![]()
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Dr. Virgo, The Overeducated (@DrVirgo1981) tweeted at 8:34 AM on Sun, May 08, 2022:
It’s crazy to learn that Putin was involved in McCains campaign. Obama’s presidency saved this whole damn democracy and yt people threw that all away in 2016.
(https://twitter.com/DrVirgo1981/status/1523295327050428417?t=e_y0twAobcCy8C0qQstHUA&s=03)
SiubhanDuinne
@oatler:
Way late back in the thread, and somebody else may already have found this, but here’s 60 seconds of MMcC saying “My father.” Glimpses of some truly frightening makeup and hair, too.
https://youtu.be/KHbrNz1RUVY
Ladyracterinok
@germy:
I love the German for”walking on eggs” It’s Eiertanz *dance on eggs
oatler
@zhena gogolia:
It was Sam, not Thomas, or am I thinking of the Muppet?
WaterGirl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: What is the brown paper bag test?
WaterGirl
@frosty: At some point John said he didn’t give a shit about the rotating tags anymore, so I took that to mean that he didn’t want to be consulted about them anymore.
Kelly
@WaterGirl: His skin is darker than a brown paper bag
WaterGirl
@Kelly: Wow. That’s really sad.
Ben in RVA
Hi all! I normally don’t comment on this blog—I’m an LGM regular—but I was told that there was a thread over Steve Schmidt’s 30 hour plus meltdown on Twitter. And that’s too good to pass up. So, here I am.
WaterGirl
@Ben in RVA: Welcome!
Your first comment has to be manually approved, but after that they show up for everyone right away.
Ben in RVA
@WaterGirl: thanks!! I figured there’d be something like that since this isn’t Disqus powered.
Could someone kindly break down the ‘pedophile’ accusation against Schmidt for me? It seems like this word is getting drained of meaning by the right wing and is just their standard go-to insult at this point.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
The Federalist Society needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth.
MisterDancer
@Ben in RVA: There isn’t any real accusation of pedophilia.
McCain, upset about poor book sales and something-something Schmidt said online, Fucked Around (tried to hint that Schmidt ran a pedo ring during the 2008 Presidential campaign) and Schmidt decided she should Find Out. Trying to smear him with the latest fave GOP accusation was, it seems, the last straw that led to this multi-hour oppo dump on Twitter.
VOR
@WaterGirl: from the Urban Dictionary
Paper bag test
The use of a brown paper bag to determine if a black African is light enough to gain admittance to a party or organization. If said African’s skin tone is lighter than or the same color as a brown paper bag then they are judged worthy to enter the party(as in a social event, not a political party) or be admitted into the organization, such as a fraternity.
http://paper-bag-test.urbanup.com/3232317
Ben in RVA
@MisterDancer: I’m far more inclined to believe Schmidt over McCain, but then again, he’s a Republican, too.
planetjanet
@zhena gogolia: That is good news.
WaterGirl
@Ben in RVA: I assumed that M. McCain calling Scmidt a pedo was just part of the new standard: “we call everyone we don’t like a pedo”.
But I bolded the”once again” in the tweet below the makes it seem like this isn’t the first time she has said that, so I really don’t know. Maybe someone else will.
JaySinWa
@WaterGirl: I’m pretty sure this is Lincoln Project John Weaver fallout. Guilt by association. Starts as didn’t get rid of Weaver soon enough, Covered up Weaver, Enabled Weaver, Same as Weaver.
Weaver harassed young interns. Pedphile is misused I think, but some were under age when he started contacting them. Grooming you might say.
WaterGirl
@JaySinWa: Is Starts someone new, or is that a bad autocorrect of Schmidt?
JaySinWa
@WaterGirl: It’s short for “It starts as” The beginning of an ugly game of telephone.
ETA can’t blame autocorrect for my bad grammar.
geg6
@Sure Lurkalot:
Not that I’m a fan, but that’s bullshit. I’ve seen Schmidt and Wilson both say they see now what they didn’t see then. Also amazing turnarounds like Rubin. I also get the Bulwark newsletter and seen many admissions there that they now realize they were wrong. Not everyone and not always as fulsome a repudiation as I’d like, but it’s simply not true that none of them have re-thought their positions since then.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
“Starts” is meant as in “The accusation started/progressed as didn’t get rid of Weaver soon enough, covered up Weaver, enabled Weaver, same as Weaver.”